The Right to Survive: Sexual Violence, Women and HIV/AIDS

• Download PDF

© International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, 2004.

The opinions expressed in this book are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Rights & Democracy. This report may be freely excerpted, provided credit is given and a copy of the publication in which the material appears is sent to Rights & Democracy.

Project Coordinator and Editor: Isabelle Solon Helal, Programme Officer, Rights & Democracy, with the collaboration of Ariane Brunet, Coordinator, Women's Rights, Rights & Democracy

Translation: Maxine Cuttler, Janis Warne

Production: Anyle Coté, Officer, Special Events and Publications, Rights & Democracy

---

Preface

In her latest report on violence against women, its causes and consequences, (1) Ms. Yakin Ertürk, UN Special Rapporteur, drew attention to the fact that HIV/AIDS intersects many forms of violence against women. Among them, rape and other acts of violence commonly carried out in the scope of armed conflict considerably increase women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. (2)

Rights & Democracy's Women's Rights Programme made the decision to fund and publish this study in response to the Special Rapporteur's appeal for more research on the subject and the need expressed by the Coalition for Women's Human Rights in Conflict Situations to better respond to the unparalleled situation experienced by women who were raped and infected with HIV/AIDS during the Rwandan genocide.

This essay is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the specific case of the Rwandan genocide and the second, the armed conflicts plaguing sub-Saharan Africa. Any analysis of the violence perpetrated against Rwandan women is incomplete without a full comprehension of the very logic underlying the genocide of Tutsis and the massacres of Hutus opposing the genocide. The genocide was the work of the State, its administration, bureaucracy, army, militias and the structures implemented to foment ethnic hatred and to incite the majority of the population to participate in the “final solution”. As Jean-Pierre Chrétien (3) points out, the Rwandan genocide is the result of an ideology and a successful and persistent propaganda campaign. One million deaths in one hundred days, thousands of rapes and acts of sexual violence, committed without regard to the victims' ages and throughout the country: this constitutes a record of rapid and “efficient” destructiveness that no other African country has ever known. The African regional context, in which many armed conflicts are being played out, requires a different analysis. Unlike the Rwandan genocide, which lasted 100 days, those conflicts are characterized by their long duration of between 10 and 30 years. In addition, while the Rwandan genocide was the work of a State, the crisis in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have demonstrated a regionalization of civil war in terms of the size of military forces, armed groups and the number of countries involved.

The first part of the essay is a monograph written using data, interviews and accounts gathered in Rwanda in February 2004. We met with 30 victims, members of survivor women's associations in Kagugu, Taba, Cyangugu, Butare, Kigali, Ruhengeri and Nyanza, and 18 women gave their personal accounts of events. This section recounts the sexual violence and the high level of HIV/AIDS among these surviving women and its relationship to the genocide, the hate propaganda and the underlying ethnic violence. In addition, the victims' rights to reparation and psychological and physical rehabilitation should clearly be of concern to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), the Rwandan government and international cooperation organizations.

The second part of this paper is based in part on interviews and data gathered in February 2004 in Goma, DRC, and in Bujumbura, Burundi. The historical poverty of Africa, the persistence of armed conflict, the transregional mobility of many armed groups, the non-compliance of peace-keeping forces with the code of conduct, their inability to protect the civilian population, and gender-based inequalities are all elements taken into account to explain the situation of women grappling with political violence and HIV/AIDS. The analysis set forth in this part focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, particularly the Great Lakes region. After demonstrating the link between rapes committed during wartime and the HIV/AIDS infection of victims, it calls upon the African Union, the States concerned and the international community in general to uphold the victims' rights to reparation and psycho-medical rehabilitation.

Jean Louis Roy, President, Rights & Democracy

Your Email :
To Email :